"There is no agreed definition of the word "Viking", be it a reference to their geographical origins or their identity as raiders. They were Norse people from before the formation of the later day kingdoms of Scandinavia, and their lightweight, shallow ships allowed them the freedom of the rivers, inlets and the high seas. Taken from the first Viking attack in Dorset circa 789 to Harald Hardrada's defeat at Stamford Bridge in 1066, the Viking age is a relatively short period of British history, and their presence on these shores was intermittent and diffuse.

Yet their influence was long lasting. As well as the Lindisfarne incident, school drummed into us the legacy of Norse place names in suffixes such as -by, -thorpe and -thwaite, and hundreds of Norse loan words maintain their place in the English language, some like bairn and addle as dialect words, others such as egg, skin, root and window in everyday usage. Orkney and Shetland are steeped in Viking culture, with some residents feeling stronger affiliations with their neighbours to the north and east than with their rulers to the south."